Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

This comic plays on the idea that success in computer science requires meticulous attention to detail. A professor at a lectern declares that being good with "details" is what separates the great computer scientists (like Donald Knuth, the legendary computer scientist known for his painstaking precision) from the nobodies.

The irony is immediately exposed when a student in the audience points out that the professor is not wearing pants. Rather than being embarrassed about this glaring oversight, the professor indignantly retorts, "I said details! Not big picture stuff!" -- as if forgetting to wear pants is merely a minor, big-picture issue rather than, well, a very noticeable detail. The joke undermines the professor's authority on the very subject he is lecturing about, while also playing with what counts as a "detail" versus the bigger picture.